


Your Arm Is Missing, Stop Laughing

by caramelcoastal



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Father Son banter, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Jack and Gabe are married and Gabe thinks Jack is a dumb twink, Light Angst, M/M, One Shot, Papa Reyes, The Serape, Young Jesse McCree, but - Freeform, he's not wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 21:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8638060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramelcoastal/pseuds/caramelcoastal
Summary: After Jesse is severely hurt on a mission, much due in part to a bad decision made by Gabriel, the two meet and talk in the medbay about what happened. Gabriel is taking this all very seriously, and is crushed under the weight of what his actions caused. Jesse, however, is much more concerned with his cartoons.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this was a request by reaching-for-love on tumblr. "Is it possible to request a fic on son mccree and papa reyes making up after a huge fight where turns out mccree did nothing wrong and Reyes might have realized it a bit to late after having been rescued by mccree and seeing the poor kid in medbay(1)(2) hurting real bad and he feels guilty and tries to make thing better after? Also I finally found your account!! I really liked your stuff but forgot to follow so it’s been a while looking for you!!!:):):) Glad I finally did keep up the good stuff! " I AM SO SORRY THIS TOOK LIKE A CENTURY PLEASE FORGIVE ME

“Mercy, you have to let me in there, I need to see Jesse,” Gabriel implored, leaning against the door. As harsh as his tone was, it was plain to see: his face practically shined with guilt. He squeezed a wrapped present tightly in his arms, his hand clearly wracked with tension.

“I understand why, Gabriel, but now is really not the time. He’s in a lot of pain, and there’s no way I can let him have any visitors in this state. It’s nothing personal,” Angela murmured softly, looking down at her hands to avoid any possible eye contact with her superior. Only being eighteen and being in charge of the entire medbay was nerve-wracking as it was, not to mention the new patient from Japan being covered in wounds on over 90% of his body. She didn't need this grouch telling her what to do, too.

“Angela, I have to see him." His glare softened up. "It's my fault he's in there to begin with. Please, let me in." 

Angela looked at him and sighed. "You're a real pain, Gabe." She moved out of the way so he could go in and see the boy. 

The 6’1 bulky man stepped right past her with a set goal in mind. He needed to see Jesse and make sure he turned out alright. All his blonde bimbo of a husband had mentioned was that Jesse was in the medbay and looked like absolute shit. After years of marriage, Gabriel could read that man like a book. That stupid twink was hiding something from him, and he was going to sniff it out.

Striding through the hall, every room he passed had some other horribly injured individual. He even got a peek at that rich boy who had been attacked by his older brother. For a second, he craned his neck as he was walking to gawk at the kid. Patches of obnoxious green hair were missing on his head, likely ripped out in the heat of the fight. The poor boy’s face was beyond ruined; long, crooked scars ran up and down his entire body, showing signs that he had been brutally cut up with some sort of sword. There were even rumors that when he arrived, his innards were visible. Whatever happened to this kid, it wasn’t humane. Gabriel shuddered at the thought of the pain he must be in.

Once he realized the boy saw him staring, he quickly kept walking along, the embarrassment burning on his face. The other rooms in the medbay were filled with men and women of varying injuries- everywhere from faces burn victims to minor broken bones and little cuts. Right at the end of the metal hallway was one last door with a cowboy hat hanging off of it. Without a doubt in Gabriel’s mind, he knew that had to be the kid’s room. He hoped whatever happened, the hours he spent on the present would be worth it.

Inhale. Hold for seven seconds. Exhale. 

He was ready.

The metal door swung open much louder than he intended, disrupting the cartoon Jesse was watching. With a quick look of irritation, Jesse’s hands flew to the remote on the bedside table and hit the pause button. He leaned back in the clinical bed and sighed. His once wild, outlaw look had been stripped away by Angela. She’d mentioned briefly that after treating his arm she’d cut his hair shorter, but Gabriel had never assumed she really did that much to it. But looking at it now, she really did tame his unruly mane. Every last hair on his seventeen year old chin had been shaved clean, and he was developing his first ever five-o'clock shadow. Two uninterested eyes looked up at Gabe.

“Hey, Old Man. Come here to apologize or what?” He stretched back, and the Blackwatch leader’s mouth dropped, along with the box that was in his hands.

Where his left-arm once was now held nothing but a little stump. It was neatly bandaged, and had stopped bleeding a while ago, but it was enough to put Gabriel into a shock, of sorts. This was what had his husband so nervous? 

“Jesse, where’s your arm? Where did it go?” stammered Gabriel. 

“I dunno. One of those shitty tin cans cut it off after we got separated.” Gabriel thought back, and that brief moment where Jesse was there one moment and gone the next flashed through his mind. 

It was his call to keep moving through the shredded city block. Jack agreed with him, believing they’d dealt with the last of the omnics a little ways back. However, Jesse had a bad feeling about the whole thing, and insisted they just turn around and get somewhere safe. What did he know? He was just a kid; a little boy hanging out with the grown-ups. Gabriel told him to shut his mouth and keep walking. Seconds later, the familiar sound of metal scraping earth became audible, and the two men and the kid realized they were surrounded. 

It was just three of them, surrounded by a horde of omnics. Jack was pounced on by one, and Jesse was way closer to him than Gabriel. Using his bare hands, he ripped the piece of junk off of Gabriel’s husband and wrestled with it. The harder he struggled with it, the greater the distance grew between him and Gabriel. More of the metal bastards flooded in, and soon it was just him and Jack defending each other. A black hole opened up in Gabriel’s stomach the longer the battle went on without any sign of Jesse. Once most of the piles of gears were pushing up daisies, Gabriel searched desperately for Jesse. 

There wasn’t a single sign of him anywhere, and he wasn’t seen again for hours, until Ana and Reinhardt went back to scout through the rubble and found him hiding in a tree. How he got there with his arm in that condition was a mystery to Gabriel.

There was only one word Gabriel could bring himself to force out. “Why,” he stammered. It wasn’t really a question.

“Why, what? Old man, you gotta be specific,” Jesse chuckled, and nonchalantly reached over for the remote to start his cartoons back up. Gabriel swiftly grabbed his hand, eyes seething with anger.

“Why did you grab that omnic?” he hissed, releasing his rough hold on the boy’s hand.

Jesse rolled his eyes and sighed. “Because you love him and if he died out there, then I’d have to listen to you cry about it for months. No one wants to hear you crying, Gabo.” He leaned back and sighed, just wanting to go back to the television and get sucked into his show again.

“I could have saved him, you know.” Gabriel softened his voice. There was no need to snap at this boy. He was really pissed at himself, not the kid.

“Yeah, no. You’re slow and old, and you two were like a billion miles apart. Let’s be real here, Gabo. If I hadn’t yanked that rust bucket off of him, it wouldn’t be my hand missing: it would probably be his head. I haven’t seen you since we got separated, my arm is missing, and all you wanna do is stand there and lecture me? Come on man. Either quit being a tool or leave and let me watch TV.” Jesse huffed, slouching in an exaggerated way.

Gabriel stood there speechless and looked down and the cold medbay floor.

“This is all my fault, Jesse. You were right.” His eyes were widened like saucers, the words he spoke slightly muffled by his right hand covering his mouth.

A smug look crept across the boy’s face. “What was that? Couldn’t hear you. I think fighting all these omnics has fucked with my hearing. Can you say it one more time?” 

Slowly, Gabriel moved his hand. “I said, you were right. This is all my fault.” 

Jesse looked insanely satisfied. “Didn’t catch it that time either. One more time?”

Gabriel’s brows furrowed, and he shot a dirty look to the kid. “Your arm is missing, do you think this is some kind of game? I’m the reason you’re in this hospital bed right now, don’t you get that? Your life will never be the same again, and you’re sitting here trying to get me to apologize again and again,” he snarled.

Jesse rolled his eyes. “Chill out, Gabo. It’s a fuckin’ joke, it’s funny.”

“This is funny to you? Dammit, what part of this seems funny!? None of this is a joke. Dios mio, I’m the reason a seventeen year old boy lost his arm…” He buried his face into his hands. “I have to live with this…” His knees buckled underneath him, and he sank to the floor like crumpled paper.

Realizing what a mess Gabriel was, Jesse sat up and crawled out of the bed and stepped over to him. Seeing the kid in a hospital gown was a little funny, but Gabriel couldn’t bring himself to laugh, or even crack a smile. He was too guilt-stricken to hardly utter a word.

“Hey, Gabo. I don’t blame you. So uh, please, don’t blame yourself.” He placed his hand gently on Gabriel’s shoulders. “Come on now, stand up. I see that you got me a present. Let’s open that, alright?”

Gabe could barely look up, but reluctantly rose to his feet and picked the package he’d dropped after seeing Jesse’s lack of an arm. The least he could do is let the kid open his present up. Without another word, he handed the nicely wrapped- though now slightly dented- box. Jesse’s eyes greedily lit up, and he began trying to open it. There was definitely a struggle, but Gabriel knew he would never accept any help in tearing the package open. He resorted to tearing off the wrapping paper and ribbon with his teeth, and got the box’s lid off with his good hand easily. 

He dove right in, and pulled out an expertly sewn article of clothing. His face lit up at the realization of what it was. “Gabo? Did you make me a serape?” His eyes darted up to look at the man struggling with the worst guilt of his life.

Gabriel nodded, and hoarsely added. “You always talk about wanting one. I figured I’d, you know, finally get to sewing one together for you.” It was red, with a golden hexagon pattern along the borders. 

“So cool.” He looked up with a big childish grin on his face, as he tried to figure out how to put it on with only the one arm. A small smile crept up on Gabriel; it made him happy to see him acting like it was the best thing in the world. Quietly, he leaned over, and helped the boy in the hospital gown put on the serape. Jesse’s smile extended from ear-to-ear, and a small giggle he was trying to suppress escaped. 

To try and make Gabriel feel better, Jesse began to talk about every thought that ran through his head. He hoped that this would take his mind off of it, and maybe relieve the tension. He was, to an extent, successful. Gabriel smiled and even cracked up at some of his crappy jokes. As much as he loved to give the old guy shit, he didn’t ever wanna see him sad like this: it was just depressing. In his mind, the arm thing really wasn’t a big deal. Angela fussed way too much, talking about how he ‘couldn’t handle visitors’ or whatever. They stayed like that, just the two of them, for a couple hours. Gradually, the sadness left Gabriel’s face and tone, though he did remain a tad somber for the rest of the night, and for very long afterwards.

Before he left, Gabriel stood still in the doorway for a moment. “You know, Jesse, I really do care about you. And I’m so sorry I didn’t listen to you back there.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s whatever. Love you too, dad.” Aw, shit. He never meant to call him Dad. His eyes quickly averted to the window in embarrassment.

Gabriel turned around to look at him. “What did you just call me?”

“Gab. I said Gab. Get out of here, old man. Go drink your prune juice or put tennis balls on your walker, whatever you old fucks do.” He spat all of his words out like somehow getting them out quicker would change the fact that he just called Gabriel dad.

Gabriel laughed, “Love you, too…” He began shutting the door, but left it open just a crack, and whispered. “... Mijo.”


End file.
